The market has dictated a need for less waste in plastic containers and refillable plastic containers have become increasingly necessary to prevent waste.
Refilling conventional sprayer bottles with liquid from refill containers requires excessive handling by the consumer and undesirable exposure to the liquid by the consumer. Devices to solve this problem have been proposed but are lacking in practical application. The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,685 describes a sprayer undesirably attached to a holder for a pouch, thereby requiring a sleeve to hold the pouch in place and several undesirable steps for a consumer to attach the pouch to the sprayer.
Accordingly, a receptacle device of the present invention securely holds a pouch in place by detachably connecting the pouch directly to the sprayer with the receptacle held therebetween; the receptacle enabling the consumer to easily assemble the pouch and receptacle and grasp the spraying device to comfortably spray the fluid from the pouch. The receptacle is held in place between the sprayer and pouch and provides integrity to the device for the user to comfortably hold the device. The spraying device will typically utilize conventional sprayers currently available on the market.
The plastic typically required for a refillable bottle cannot typically be made from 100 percent post consumer recycled plastic. The plastic must be made from a percentage of unprocessed plastic in order for the bottle to adequately contain the contents.
Accordingly, the present invention also utilizes a receptacle device which is not in direct contact with the contents of the pouch to be dispensed and therefore can be made with a light weight plastic and/or up to one hundred percent post-consumer recycled plastic.
Typical pouches that are merely fluid filled bags are typically difficult to fill during production because as they index through a filling station during production, the product sloshes up along the inside walls of the pouches and the interior of the pouch becomes moistened, which prevents a leakproof seal from being formed.
Accordingly, the present invention also comprises a pouch having a neck portion made of material to provide sufficient integrity to allow for mounting of the neck to a cap on a sprayer. The integrity of the neck portion will allow machinery to grab the collar of the neck portion to hold the pouch in place for filling during production. Additionally, the walls of the pouch will not require a seal once filled thereby eliminating the difficult step of sealing a moistened pouch. The pouch of the present invention may be sealed by covering the opening of the the upper neck portion with a foil or frangible seal or other sealable means.